Phil Bryant on Education

Privately funded Opportunity Scholarship for failing schools

Thanks to the work of this Legislature, the Department of Education changed the complicated formula for ranking our schools to a simple one: A through F. I am asking you to pass an act that will create privately funded
Opportunity Scholarships so students who are below 250 percent of the poverty level and live in D and F schools districts can have a chance to take resources and go elsewhere. Let us give parents a choice so children can have a chance.

We should also have a workable charter school act that provides choices for parents. More than 40 other states have this option. Shouldn't we allow such opportunities for our own children?
I applaud the Senate and the House for their efforts on this important issue. When a good charter school bill reaches my desk, I intend to sign it.

$15M for literacy; and merit pay for teachers

I call on [the Legislature] to fund $15 million to assist with literacy improvement efforts. These funds will help us train teachers on best-practices in reading instruction and will also help provide reading interventionists to help struggling
third-graders and other students. If our education system does a better job early on making sure students can read on grade level, remediation costs will decline.

I have also discussed pay for performance, or merit pay, for our teachers.
I believe we should reward our most effective teachers by compensation. Let me be clear, no teacher will lose any salary.

In addition to keeping and rewarding great classroom teachers, we must raise the bar for new teachers.
The bill I submitted raises the entrance standard for education programs. Under this act, a student must have a 21 ACT score and a minimum GPA of 3.0 to become a teacher. Why would we want anything less for our students?

Close failing districts & implement charters

Under the Children's First Act, school districts that fail to achieve results for two straight years have their leadership dismissed and operations taken over by the state. Our children deserve results--not excuses.

Charter schools in failing school districts: I will continue supporting legislation reforming the Public Charter School law to encourage more options in public education, including charter schools in failing school districts.